D 646 
.U6 
1919 
Copy 1 



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D 646 

.U6 

1919 



Calendar No. 16. 

ObTH uoNGKESs, 1 SENATE I Report 

tst Session. J * 1 No. 15. 

NATIONAL PEACE POLICY. 



June 12, 1919. — Ordered to be printed. 



Mr. Knox, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, submitted the 

following 

REPORT. 

[To accompany S. Res. 76.] 

The Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom was referred 
Senate resolution 76, defuiing a peace treaty which shall assure to 
the people of the United States the attainment of the ends for which 
they entered the war, and declaring the policy of our Government to 
meet fully obligations to ourselves and to the world, having had the 
same under consideration, report it with an amendment, as follows: 

On page 4, strike out section 5, lines 13 to 23, inclusive. 

So that the resolution as amended will read as follows: 

Whereas the Congress of the United States in declaruig, pursuant to its exclusive 
authority under the Constitution, the existence of a state of war between the United 
States and the Imperial German Government, solemnly affirmed that the Imperial 
Government has so "committed repeated acts of war against the Government and 
the people of the United States" that a state of war had been thrust upon them by 
that Government, and thereupon formally pledged the whole military and national 
resources of the country "to bring the conflict to a successful termination"; and 
Whereas the Senate of the United States, being a coequal part of the treaty-making 
power of this Government, and therefore coequally responsible for any treaty 
which is concluded and ratified, is deeply concerned over the draft treaty of peace 
negotiated at Versailles by which it is proposed to end our victorious war and is 
gravely impressed by the fact that its provisions appear calculated to force upon 
us unclesirable and far-reaching covenants inimical to our free institutions under 
the penalty that failing to accept these we shall continue in a state_ of war while 
our cobelligerents shall be at peace and enjoying its blessings; that is it proposed 
to make us parties to a league of nations, under a plan as to which the people of 
the United States have had neither time to examine and consider nor opportunity 
to express regarding it a matured and deliberate judgment, whereas the treaty 
may be easily so drawn as to permit the making of immediate peace, leaving the 
question of the establishment of a league of nations for later determination; and 
that the treaty as drawn contains principles, guaranties, and undertakings oblit- 
erative of legitimate race and national aspirations, oppressive of weak nations and 
peoples, and destructive of human progress and liberty: Therefore be it 
Resolved, That the Senate of the United States will regard as fully adequate for our 
national needs and as completely responsive to the duties and obligations we owe to 
our cobelligerents and to humanity, a peace treaty which shall assure to the United 
States and its people the attainment of those ends for which we entered the war, and 
that it will look with disfavor upon all treaty provisions going beyond these ends. 






,^1^ 



2 NATIONAL PEACE POLICY. 

2. That since the people of the United States have themselves determined and pro- ,^ 
vided in their Constitution the only ways in which the Constitution maybe amended, , • 
and since amendment by treaty stipulation is not one of the methods which the people 
have so prescribed, the treaty-making power of the United States has no authority 
to make a treaty which in effect amends the Constitution of the United States, and 
the Senate of the United States can not advise and consent to any treaty provision 
which would have such effect, if enforced. 

3. That the Senate advises, in accordance with its constitutional right and duty, 
that the great paramount, if not the sole duty of the peace conference is ciuickly to 
bring all the belligerents a full and complete peace; that to this end, the treaty shall 
be so drawn as to permit any nation to reserve without prejudice to itself for future 
separate and full consideration by its people the question of any league \)f nations, that 
neither such an article nor the exercise of the rights reserved thereunder, whether at 
the time of signature, the time of ratification, or at any other time, shall affect the 
substance of the obligations of Germany and its cobelligerents under the treaty, nor 
the validity of signature and ratification on their behalf; and that any indispensable 
participation by the United States in matters covered by the league covenant shall, 
pending the entry of the United States into the league, be accomplished through 
diplomatic commissions which shall be created with full power in the premises. 

4. That this resolution indicates and gives notice of the limits of the present obliga- 
tions against the United States in which the Senate of the United States is now pre- 
pared to acquiesce by consenting to the ratification of a treaty embodying peace condi- 
tions that may be found otherwise acceptable to its judgment, and that the adoption 
by the peace conference of the foregoing reasonable limitations and positions will 
facilitate the early acceptance of the treaty of peace by the Senate of the United 
States, will in no wise interfere with the league of nations as between these countries 
prepared to ratify the treaty without further consideration and will afford such a 
manifestation of real respect for the wishes of a great people as can not fail more lirmly 
to cement the friendship already existing between ourselves and our cobelligerents. 

Your committee recommend that the resolution be -passed as 
amended. 

o 




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